batteries and energy storage

California-based solar manufacturer SunPower has teamed up with homebuilding company KB Home to deliver PV battery storage to residential homes.

The collaboration is part of a pilot programme in which SunPower will install 1.4kW PV systems in selected KB Home communities in California, US. The system combines rooftop solar panels with a battery that stores the energy generated during the day. The system is set to power the house during the night with the stored electricity.

You’re only as good as your weakest link and in a series string of batteries, that could be a single cell. The answer of course is parallel string offering redundancy – or a piece of electronics that switches cells into parallel operation when one cell goes down.

And that’s exactly what German-based Automatic Storage Device (ASD) showed at Intersolar this week. They call it Pacadu (parallel automatic charge and discharge unit). ASD has developed a new electronic device that can be installed onto each individual battery cell. The innovation allows any number of cells to be combined in a storage system, irrespective of their size, manufacturer, storage technology or power output. 
“We have succeeded in finding a solution that overcomes the technical problems caused by connecting battery cells in series. This marks a real revolution, not only for energy storage systems but for every single battery used around the world. The parallel connection of battery cells has so many advantages that in four years’ time the practice of connecting cells in series will have become a thing of the past,” explains Wolfram Walter, Managing Director of ASD.

Yuasa Battery Sales in the UK has launched a range of lithium-ion cells for use in UPS systems and industrial backup power applications.

The LIM50E cells will be suitable for use in installations with a small footprint that require high power density at a nominal voltage of 3.7V with a capacity of 50Ah.

The operating range is between -25°C to 60°C for storage, charge and discharge conditions.

Yuasa Battery intends the LIM50E to be used in UPS and standby power systems in telecoms, datacentres and large energy storage systems used with renewable energy.

Yuasa is well-known in the UPS and industrial backup power industries as a manufacturerer of lead-acid batteries so is well placed to know the demands of these applications.

MAN Diesel & Turbo has unveiled the 35/44G four-stroke diesel engine, also known as ‘Otto’, at its facility in Augsburg, Germany.

The 35/44G is offered in a V-type version with 20 cylinders and an output of 10,600 kWm, (10,200 kWm). Its rated outputs – 530 kW per cylinder for 50 Hz power generation and 510 kW for 60 Hz power generation – give the 35/44G best-in-class power density among gas engines.

The newly-developed ‘Otto’ gas engine has an electrical efficiency of 47.2%, and is available for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and/or jointly with a MAN steam turbine of the MARC series – in a combined cycle mode reaching high total plant efficiencies with low emissions.

It also features a single-stage turbocharger with variable turbine area (VTA) technology and many innovative technological elements. The spark-ignited unit, which is ideal for combined-cycle and combined-heat and power configuration with waste-heat utilisation, complies with all current emission limits solely by in-engine measures.